"Can Heroes Be Efficient?"

The title is based on a case written by Tuck School of Business at Darmouth College "Can Heroes be Efficent? Information Technology at the International Federation of the Red Cross." The case could be found in this link (click case study).

By D. Manggala (February 5, 2005)

Last Tuesday, a friend of mine, Nursyirwan, told me his experiences visiting Aceh in the end of January. He is a member of Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS), a party that has shown its fast response since January 27, one day after the earthquake and Tsunami swept Aceh and Nias Island. The combination of guilty feeling because of my inability to be there (maybe most Indonesian people have this kind of feeling) and a consistent report about lack of coordination make me wonder how should a humanitarian effort could be executed, especially in long time horizon. The incompetence in managing the donations and organizing so many involved parties make the victims suffer more.

Another friend, Inggita, who is very active coordinating donations and information related to the Tsunami's victims, wrote in her email that what we are doing now is more like "a sprint"; we need something that could last for "a marathon". I agree with her statement one hundred percent; volunteers and emergency support need a better management to ensure all of the recovery and rebuilding efforts could be executed well. Logistics will be a key in both of short and long term humanitarian effort. Even though I read about the "blue print" of Aceh rebuilding, but still I am wondering about what is the best practices from historical experiences in dealing with a tragedy in that scale.

From IPOMS (Indonesian Production and Operation Management Society)'s mailing list, I got an information about Humanitarian Logistics Software (HLS); an internet-based logistic software; my impression after visiting its developer, The Fritz Institute, it is a kind of simpler ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) for managing humanitarian efforts. Even though the implementation of ERP in many companies are not quite successful, but in the successful implementation ERP could be the silver bullet in managing a complex network of suppliers, warehouses, items, and customers. For the tsunami devastated areas, HLS may make a little (or significant) differences. Who knows?

So, if someone has experiences with the HLS please share your experience to us (at least to me). The kind of logistics management may create a best combination of heroism (or simply volunteerism) and management....I will be glad to learn or to be involved.